There are cherries, there is fruit, there is a market - there is no. This is the main problem of the producers in North-Eastern Bulgaria - they have nowhere to realize their production, unlike their colleagues, the fruit growers in Southern Bulgaria, where there is also organized buying, here this problem is almost unsolvable and each one of them is saved individually. They have even lost the Romanian markets they had until recently.
This is clear from a report on Nova TV.
Borka and Valentin Todorovi grow 100 acres of cherries near the village of Glodjevo. This year, they expect about 500 kilograms of fruit per acre. They sell day by day and limited quantities. "The market is in the populated areas, in Razgrad, in Varna, Shumen, Ruse, we try to sell on stock exchanges - we organize ourselves", says Valentin.
The two claim that the large purchasing and processing centers are located only in southern Bulgaria, and probably because of the cost of transport, they do not buy cherries from distant regions from there.
According to Valentin, there is a lack of cents to buy their production. There are no centers in the whole of North-Eastern Bulgaria, the fruit growers say. In places in the massifs near Slivo Pole, buyers offered a 20% lower price compared to last year, and workers' wages rose by 30 percent.
"The worker's wages must also go up, thus the costs increase, the prices of detergents increase, the price of oil too, and the selling price cannot reach such levels to compensate for the costs we make," Valentin believes. .
If they failed, the cherries would spoil and they would go for brandy. According to him, the price of the brandy is very low, enough to cover the cost of picking the cherries. And in order not to waste the fruits of their labor, the fruit growers offer:
"To have such centers that buy our cherry, sort it, cool it, package it, it becomes for export to Europe, our cherry is the most delicious cherry in the whole world".
And they give the example of neighboring Romania and how they protected their native production there.
"Before, there was no problem, we cross the border and go to a market in Bucharest. But now, in order to export cherries there, we have to go to a certain company, have a contract, they introduced such a law, and now it is difficult for us to let's go", he says.